Bahamas – Oct 2011

Bahamas – Oct 2011

Alright… We’re 387 days away from our projected retirement date. We’ve been paying the last of our bills off, they are done, except one (well, and the Mortgage) but that’s ok, it will be done too.We’re debating the best way to finally head out, but that too is still up in the air.

We don’t OWN a boat yet, other than the Winds of Change, a small, 25′ sloop we trailer places, and she’s likely to remain with us on our trip across the country.

In the Mean Time we wanted to sail again this year someplace in the Caribbean.

An opportunity opened up a few days ago to go visit and do some work on a 29′ Saber that lives in Marsh Harbor. The owner, a good friend of mine here in Colorado has a condo there, and has graciously offered to lend me his boat for a few days this year in exchange for some work on the boat. Simple stuff, a few hours of work for a few days of sailing. I’m in. So’s the First Mate.

In addition, he has asked if I would be willing to help him bring the boat across from the Bahamas next year to the Florida coast. I’m in as First Mate. He’s not yet decided that he’ll skipper the boat, but is reasonably confident he can do so. We will see. Might end up being my first “Delivery” job.

In any case, we’re going to probably go around the first week in October before it gets chilly on the Atlantic and before the end of “official hurricane season”, but also before the kick in travelers headed for the area and it gets crowded or dangerous! 🙂

So if things work out we’ll go and sail the boat around Abacos a bit, do some work on the boat, get a bit more “Island Experience” and test some stuff I’ve been wanting to try out (ham radio related, email and such).

We have YET to get our own boat into the water this year, each weekend being full of family and friend related stuff, as well as being busy working on the house trying to throw out some of our “Stuff”. God, there’s a lot more stuff to throw out. Pretty soon I’ll be giving some away, and donating some, and finally selling things on ebay, but we’re working on it.

We got our airline tickets and have been putting together some supplies we will need to take to the boat.

The boat doesn’t have any linens, towels and such, there are no eating utensils or cooking pots/pans, and the owner doesn’t know if the stove actually works. It’s an alcohol stove. So we’re putting together a package we can check on the plane with stuff in it, including a single burner backpacking stove I used to hike with. Obviously we’ll have to get fuel and such there, no biggy. Pretty much anything liquid that can burn can be used. I’ll try not to use brandy, but look for alcohol.

So, list of things to do for the owner so far.

Replace oil pressure gauge and sending unit.
Check and repair/clear/refurbish stove for the owner.
Check some wiring that he was concerned about.

He has some tools for me to bring, including a meter (volt-ohm-milliammeter) to drop on the boat.

I’ve checked in with the Marina, and they know we are showing up.

I did need to get a new backpack, so I borrowed one from my now-retired-from-US Army-Son but might buy one like it if it works out ok for future travel. Not sure yet what JoAnne wants to do for her travel bag. She has one backpack, but it’s a bit small, and we normally carry these type of gym bags with several pouches, but they are slightly larger than we want or need (but we can certainly get 10-12 days of clothing and personal items in the bags).

I think we will be fine though. Trying hard to travel light, except for the stuff we will take and leave there. I have considered shipping it, but figure it’s going to cost less to carry and I can be sure it actually, eventually gets there.